With these staggering statistics on how modern technology has now affected shoppers’ behavior, it’s not surprising to see that more and more people want to launch an online business.

You might be someone who wants to start selling on the Internet. Or perhaps, you already have a store but are looking for ways to increase its visibility and popularity.

One of the most effective ways to do that? Optimize your online store for the search engines.

Let’s explore the different methods on how you can up your rankings for search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

Part I: Optimize High-Impact Pages

The high-impact pages are the most visited pages on your website. They are the ones that attract more visitors and stimulate more engagement from your users.

In most cases, these high-impact pages include homepage, product pages, category pages, blog posts and trending pages. Here are some tips for you:

Tip #1: Determineyourtargetkeywords. You need to know the most common words (or keywords) that your target audience are using. From there, insert those keywords on your high-impact pages and of course, your meta data. Include textual information that is helpful, descriptive and relevant.

When selecting keywords, you need to consider its search volume, relevance, location-based popularity, and ranking difficulty. So how can you find the best keywords for you?

Usekeywordtools. Use Keyword tools to find out which keywords you should use on your high-impact pages. If you are on a budget, you can opt to use free tools such as Google’s Keyword Planner. If you’d like to save time and generate more effective keywords, you can go for paid SEO tools like SEMrush.

Refineyourkeywordlist. Targeting all keywords will be a waste of time. Generate traffic faster by starting with low competition keywords. The faster you generate traffic, the faster your website becomes established and improve your chances of getting high search rankings.

Stalk yourcompetitors’ strategy. In most cases, your competitors have already made a significant stride in their SEO campaigns. Check out their website and study how they use keywords, then focus on how they present their overall brand. Take note of their popular products and homepage. By doing so, you get an idea which keywords are most profitable.

Tip #2: Uselong–tailkeywords. In the simplest sense, long-tail keywords generally include at least three words. Most searchers don’t just use a single word when looking for something. Long-tail keywords are more specific, and they play a significant role in search engine configuration. Here’s an example:

See how specific are those keywords in the auto complete search bar? That’s what you want to do. Be as specific as possible such as inserting color(s), size or type of your product.

Remember, people who use long-tail keywords have a higher conversion rate because they know exactly what they are looking for.

Also, there is a lesser competition in targeting long-tail keywords since they aim for niche demographics rather than mass audiences, so they have a better chance of allowing you to rank higher for popular topics.

Tip #5: Usesearch–enginefriendlyURLs. Use URLs that are readable by both humans and search engines. Make sure that your URLs are simple, and straightforward. Avoid strange symbols, numbers, and character combinations that don’t make sense.

Tip #6: OptimizeYourHomepage. Structure your navigation bar. Add visuals (set descriptive ALT tags) of your main products/services that are inviting with textual information. Add links to your most popular products/services. Add a great tagline with your main keywords. If you’re local, be sure to put your location. Here’s a good example (see how it has the “Toronto” keyword):

Tip #7: Optimizeproductpages

Createuniqueproductdescriptions. Exert the effort to write an in-depth content of up to 1,000 words for each product. You can include the size, features, colors, customer’s F.A.Q. and reviews. Check out some products on Amazon for ideas!

Keepout–of–stockproductpageslive. You don’t want to frustrate users with a 404 page, and search engines can consider those as broken links. Just leave page as is and specify its status. You can use that page to introduce other related products. PRO TIP: Adding “email me when back in stock” message is the best approach.

Setuprich snippets. Increase your CTR with rich snippets. Include relevant information such as stock data, reviews, ratings, the name of sellers, the condition of products, and others. Here’s an example:

Tip #7: OptimizeCategories&TagPages

Linktorelatedcategories. Sometimes, your products share a common theme. In this case, it’s best that you do cross-linking. For example, if you have products for helmets, try to add a link for gloves or boots. These items fall under personal protective equipment.

Topproducts. Highlight your top products and most viewed items in each category & tag pages.

Part II: Use Strategic Internal Linking

Internal linking is an important way to lead your customers from one page to another. The more link juice that a page receives, the better for SEO.

Tip #8: Linktohighprioritypages. Link your main categories or products/services in your navigation bar and/or your footer. For example, if you have a blog post that has generated a lot of visitors, make sure you add links on that page that leads to your best products or category pages.

Tip #9: Usebreadcrumbs. In the SEO perspective, breadcrumbs help robots and spiders to find their way back to your homepage. For humans, it helps them track where they are on your website and gives them a sense of direction when navigating from one page to another. The breadcrumbs shows a string of webpages, from your homepage to the current page you are currently viewing. They’re normally found on top of a website’s page.

Tip #10: Link to related products. Add a section that recommends related products to your customers. Not only it helps generate backlinks, it can also boost your sales.

PRO TIP: Limit the number of links you add per page, you don’t want to look like a “link farm” website to the search engines. Here’s a useful video for you.

Part III: Improve Usability

Remember, you build your website for your customers and not the other way around. It’s always customers first. So make your website as user-friendly as possible. You don’t want your customers to leave your website the minute they land on your page.

Tip #11: Organize your website’s structure. Your customers should be able to go from one page to another with ease.